The road blocks have been removed. The question now, what about the president s theatrics . Plus, reporting that the president plans to pardon his former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. But with legal questions surrounding the president , the question is will he also try to pardon himself . And the u. S. Reports its highest number of covid hospitalizations yet. With so Many Americans suffering. The question is why is the president so much more concerned with the stock market . Its way too early for this. Good morning, and welcome to way too early, the show that hopes each of you can find something to be grateful for in this difficult year. Im kasie hunt on this wednesday, november 25th. Well start with the news. President ial transition is now officially under way. A biden official tells nbc news that from the afternoon yesterday, Transition Team has made contact with all of the federal agencies including the white house. The president elect says hes not yet received the president ial Daily Briefing from u. S. Intelligence officials. But that it could happen today. Heres more from the incoming president in his first sitdown interview since winning the election with our own lester holt. Immediately, weve gotten outreach from the National Security shop. Were working on a meeting with the covid team in the white house. I think were going to be not be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past. And theres a lot of immediate discussion and i must say, the outreach has been sincere. Have you had any conversations with President Trump postelection about, you know, paving the way for this transition to happen . No, i have not heard anything from President Trump. Wow. The president elect said that he would, of course, meet with trump, but only if the president asked. Biden says hes not yet spoken to dr. Anthony fauci, but that his staff has been in touch with him. And, of course, yesterday, president elect joe biden officially introduced those cabinet picks. And its a selection filled with career, National Security and Foreign Policy professionals. As expected Anthony Blinken will serve as secretary of state. Alejandro mayorkas will be the first immigrant to head Homeland Security. Avril haines will become the first woman to hold the role of national sbuintelligence. Jake sullivan. And former secretary of state john kerry will be climate envoy, a new position. Heres what biden had to say about them yesterday. Its a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure. Its a team that reflects the fact that america is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Once again, sit at the head of the table. Ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies. Ready to stand up for our values. Theyll tell me what i need to know, not what i want to know. What i need to know. How, we have to proceed with equal measures of humility and confidence. Humility, because as the president elect said, we cant solve all of the worlds problems alone. The department of Homeland Security has a mobile mission, to help keep us safe and to advance our proud history, as a country of welcome. President joe biden will trust in god. And he will also trust in science to guide our work on earth. America is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back. Going from America First to america is back. Republicans, of course, were quick to judge president elect bidens cabinet choices even if some of them havent yet called him president elect. Former senator marco rubio tweeted that the group will be polite and orderly caretakers of americas decline. Tom cotton said that biden is surrounding himself with panda huggers who will only reinforce his choices to go soft on china. George holley wrote what a group of enthusiasts and bigtech sellouts. Ambassador ben sasse who has acknowledged the president elect had a different take on current secretary of state mike pompeo. What do you think of bidens cabinet picks, do you think hell have a hard time confirming them. Im glad. I know some of these folks, they took a very different view. They lived in a bit of a fantasy world. They led from behind. They appeased. I hope theyll choose a different course. Here we are in 2020, its different than 2015. Okay. Meanwhile, President Trump has told confidants he plans to pardon former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Two sources with direct knowledge of the statement that he pled twice pled guilty to lying. And flynn said there was no basis in the interview for which he lied, prompting the initial prosecutor on the case. The matter has been since tied up in a federal court by a presiding judge who was unwilling to. Its worth noting that the attorney was Sidney Powell fired from the trump team on monday after claiming that georgias governor and secretary of state helped rig the election in bidens favor. The New York Times reports that powell had talked to the president about her client and asked that he not issue a pardon. Its unknown if they have discussed the matter since. Joining us now, the author of the washington posts powerup, jacqueline mcenany. Im glad youre healthy and youre braev to write abouve to on washingtonpost. Com. Lets talk, first, about Michael Flynn. This is obviously a phase were entering here. The president has got part of december and january left. This is something that happens in an outgoing president s term. But, of course, as with everything under President Trump likely to be particularly explosive and controversial. What legacy would this leave if he does pardon flynn . Yeah, kasie, as you noted right at the top of the show, i think this pardon, and to do what you said, washington hasnt actually confirmed this news, but what this pardon means the president is taking a very brazen approach to closing out his final lame luck few months in office here, despite not yet conceding or recognizing president elect joe biden as the president elect. But it does raise the question whether or not this president is going to pardon himself. As you also said, this is a tradition. Many departed president s have issued pardons and commutations previously. Weve already seen this president issue a commutation for roger stone. Another one of his former Campaign Officials who had dealings with russia. And what this marks, really, is the president finally taking revenge, the culmination of a yearlong investigation into russia. Flynn was the sole person connected to the campaign, and the trump administration, who was actually charged in the russia investigation. And this is President Trumps way of, you know, closing the book on this. And, you know, again, once again, falsely claiming that there was no wrongdoing here. And trying to pardon him. But, again, as he seeks to shield himself from any legal problems it does raise the question whether or not hell try to implement a subparter ne. Lets talk about the contrast. Everything from the last four years and what we saw from the biden team when the president elect introduced his National Security team, announced his first slate of cabinet picks and white house staffing choices. I mean, the event was was extraordinarily traditional. There was a focus on family. On service. The overall sensibility, and we showed a little bit of what was said that underscoring america is back. That phrase we hurt repeated several times. I think really designed to send a message to the rest of the world and perhaps to the current president as well it is obviously, inevitable that joe biden will take office on inauguration day. And hes clearly laying out a path that he wants to look very different from what weve been through in the last four years. Right. And its, you know, it is sort of it feels like reporters are having to just completely shift back to the way things were. It is taking a bit of getting used to, to be honest with you here. Not having to scramble at sort of these haphazard wild announcements by twitter on President Trump, sort of having this very organized, rolledout, you know, pretty just normal sorts of press conferences. But the president elect is trying to tell, you know, send a really strong message here, that as you said, america is back. Theres still a number of big cabinet picks that have to be chosen, including his attorney general. But these are deliberate picks that the team is making now in order to avoid potentially problematic confirmation battles in january. And the biden team is trying to show theyre hitting the ground running. Theyre working with dr. Fauci on how to distribute the vaccine. And a number of other things. Now, that the gsa ascertainment has been completed, they can move forward with work with other agencies formally. All right, the washington posts jackie alemany, thank you very much. We hope you have a very nice thanksgiving. The dow surged to a record high yesterday, crossing 30,000 for the first time after President Trump said his aides would help with president elect Joe Bidens White house transition, though, trump still has not publicly conceded. The stock markets rally was already gaining steam after the release of promising covid19 vaccine results. The markets also responded favorably to bidens nomination of janet yellen as treasury secretary. Heres President Trump on the stock market yesterday. Stock market has just broken 30,000. Never been broken. That number, thats a sacred number. 30,000, nobody thought theyd ever see it. I just want to congratulate all of the people within the administration that worked so hard. Most importantly i want to graduate the people of our country because there are no people like you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. That was a lastminute 64second quote unquote press conference that they announced at the white house yesterday. Meanwhile, hospitalizations from the coronavirus reached a new high yesterday, shattering the previous record which was set only a day before. Over 88,000 people are currently hospitalizeded with covid19, according to the covid tracking project. The u. S. Yesterday also reported its highest daily death toll in six months logging nearly 2100 fatalities. Still ahead here, will the coronavirus stand in the way of the thanksgiving rivalry game between the ravens and steelers . Well have that answer in sports. And it seems that the Trump Legal Team is now at a point of staging fake hearings to make its case about voter fraud. Those stories and a check of your weather when we come right back. Why are we doing this . Why are we doing what . Using my old spice moisturize with shea butter body wash. All i wanted was to use your body wash and all i wanted was to have a body wash. To Severe Plaque Psoriasis uncover clearer skin that can last. In fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. Tremfya®. Uncover clearer skin that can last. Janssen can help you explore cost support options. A new buick . For me . To james, from james. Thats just what i wanted. Is this a new buick . I secret santaed myself. I shouldnt have. But i have been very good this year. Wow wow wow this year, turn black friday into buick friday all month long. Now during buick friday, pay no interest for 84 months on most 2020 buick suv models. Pay no interest for 84 months honey honey . New nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honeylicious taste. Nyquil honey. The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine. Welcome back. Time now for sports and the First College football rankings of the season. Alabama, number one, followed by notre dame, clemson and ohio state. The crimson tide are among four s. E. C. Teams that appear in the topnine initial rankings. Fifth ranked texas a m, and ninth ranked georgia. Auburn, number 22 is the conference 5 teams in the overall rankings. Meanwhile, in an apparent snub because of a weak schedule, undefeated byu appears behind three twoloss teams at number 14. Not only are the cougars out of reach for the playoffs, being outside of the top12 means they also likely wont qualify to reach a new years 6 bowl. Bummer. The Baltimore Ravens shut down their facility and moved to remote work yesterday after reports that the team has as many as four new positive coronavirus cases. The team placed outside linebacker mcphee on the covid list. On monday, the Team Announced running back j. K. Dobbins and mark ingram tested positive. Defensive tackle Brendon Williams was placed on the list as a close contact. The ravens are still slated to travel to pittsburgh for the thursday night matchup against the undefeated steelers. Time for weather. Lets go to meteorologist bill karins for a check on your thanksgiving forecast. Bill, hows it looking . Good morning, kasie. It was dangerous last night, in texas, specifically, the dallas area was under a tornado warning, sirens going off. Everybody was in cover. There was significant damage, this roof structure collapsed on four vehicles. There were some people trapped briefly, we have not heard of any deaths or significant injuries but well continue to update that as we get new pictures in during the morning. Lets get to the forecast, watching the storms rolling in from louisiana, mississippi and tennessee. Theyre not as severe so thats good. But on this busy travel day, all of that rain is heading through the ohio valley, the Tennessee Valley and a brief amount of rain there throughout the southeast. Keep in mind traveling, especially i70. For thanksgiving day, the rain lingers for much of the day from philadelphia, new york, southern new england, especially the hartfordprovidence hear. Kasie, were clearing out there briefly. And its not often that they get late tornado warnings but that was the case. Pretty scary. Glad to know we dont have any injuries or anything along those lines. Bill karins, thank you as always. We will see you monday. I hope you and your family have a happy thanksgiving. Still ahead, well have new reporting on those within the president s inner circle said to him to continue to move forward with the biden administration. Were back in just a minute. Laundry isnt done until its done with downy. Lexus has been celebrating driveway moments. Heres to one more, the lexus december to remember sales event. Get 0 financing on all new 2020 and 2021 lexus models. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. Shes confident, protected, her strength respected. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. Depend. With the ninja foodito intelligesmart xl grill. Ing just pick your protein, select your doneness, and let the grill monitor your food. It also turns into an air fryer. Bring outdoor grilling flavors indoors with the grill that grills for you. Thats why weve merged with sprint. Get more. Now its about to get even better. And as we work to integrate sprints network, our nationwide 5g keeps getting stronger. With the capacity and coverage to reach more people and places across the country. Who says you cant have it all. Now is the time for 5g. Now is the time to join tmobile. You can count on me ill be home for christmas if only in my dreams shingles doesnt care. I logged 10,000 steps today. Shingles doesnt care. I get as much fresh air as possible. Good for you, but shingles doesnt care. Because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. But no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age, increasing your risk for getting shingles. So what can protect you . Shingrix protects. For the first time ever, you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90 effective. Shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. Shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. The most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about protecting yourself with shingrix. Shingles doesnt care. Shingrix protects. Welcome back to way too early. Lets take a look at whats driving the day here in washington. House and Senate Appropriators are onestep closer to avoiding a Government Shutdown. Republicans and democrats on the House Committee reached a bipartisan agreement heading the way for a 1. 4 trillion spending package that will avert a Government Shutdown next month. Overall agreements for 12 appropriations bill that would combine for one omnibus bill is what we call it. The wildcard here, President Trump. Everyone hoping that he did not launch us into some sort of Government Shutdown or other crisis as he is on the way out the door. Meanwhile, we are learning more about the pressure that the president faced to allow the transition to proceed. The New York Times first reported about a meeting on monday in which white house chief of staff mark meadows, white House CounselPat Cipollone and jake sebalow. Their argument was rather than continue to take the massive pr hit from all of this, suck it up and the goal was to control the protests within the gop. Maybe those statements from senators like rob portman had an impact. Meanwhile, while the president s legal battles might be coming to an end, his theatrics from the election are far from over. The campaign announced, quote unquote here in multiple battleground states, starting in pennsylvania which, of course, just certified its results. The alleged hearing made up of only republican state senators will be held at a hotel in gettysburg. There are reports that the president might be there as well. Although his official schedule shows he has no public events. Meanwhile in michigan the Campaign Said a hearing would happen on december 1, but a republican lawmaker told the detroit news, logistically, its not something that were able to do, added that the Biden Campaign has been invited to submit written testimony. In arizona, november 30th there will be a hearing. Arizonas state senator, a republican, said its news to her. In fact, thats the same day that state officials plan to certify Election Results. We should underscore, again, this is a continued attempt to undermine Public Confidence and faith in our free and fair elections. Still ahead here, two more key states prepare to certify president elect bidens wins as georgia prepares for another recount. Well tell you whats different this time around. Well be back in a moment. But before we go to break, we want to know why are you awake, email us your answe answers msnbc. Com. Or kasie. Well read your answers coming up later in the show. Witched ba. One wash, stains are gone. Daughter slurping dont pay for water. Pay for clean. Its got to be tide. With the ninja foodito intelligesmart xl grill. Ing just pick your protein, select your doneness, and let the grill monitor your food. It also turns into an air fryer. Bring outdoor grilling flavors indoors with the grill that grills for you. And now your copilot. Still a father. But now a friend. Still an electric car. Just more electrifying. Still a night out. But everything fits in. Still hard work. Just a little easier. Still a legend. Just more legendary. Chevrolet. Making lifes journey, just better. Plus have high Blood Pressure. They may not be able to take just anything for pain. Thats why doctors recommend tylenol®. It wont raise Blood Pressure the way that advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. 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President trump is quickly running out of options in his lastditch effort to cling to power as key states move to certify their Election Results officially confirming joe biden as the president elect. Pennsylvania and nevada are the latest states to officially certify that biden defeated trump in their state elections. And this comes a day after michigan certified that he won the election there. Meanwhile in arizona, governor doug ducey says he acknowledges that biden carried his state. However, election recounts are still under way in georgia. County workers across the state began a machine recount of 5 million votes yesterday. Just a few days ago, they completed a hand tally that confirmed bidens lead of roughly 12,000 votes. Joining us now reporter for the washington post, eugene scott, his latest piece in the post tackles the question, whats the big mistake a transition can make . Eugene, great to see you. Your story that we just outlined there features somebody who has been through two transitions. What did you learn from this conversation . I think its important to underscore here, its been a couple of weeks since joe biden since nbc declared that joe biden had won the election and was president elect. And thats actually a pretty significant chunk of time in this, about two months, that any transition has to work with, to get ready. Potentially could be pretty impactful. What did you learn in this conversation . G yes, i spoke with tevi troy who has worked on two transitions. And i updated my transmission which i featured in the podcast the next four years and he had insights about what can go wrong in a transition. One of the things obviously were delays and keeping information away from the new team and the new president that could be crucial to meeting the country well within the first 100 days. Some of those areas related to National Security. Some of those areas related to the economy. Especially when youre in an economic downturn. And of course, also facts and information thats needed if youre in a pandemic or some other large crisis. One of the things that was very, you know, interesting i guess you could say about what he said was the importance of putting the right people in place in these first 100 days is based on the information you get in a transition. It helps you make announcements and placements that allow you to get off the ground running as be effectively as possible. When you dont have as much information as you need to make the best hires, its very common to put wrong people in the wrong positions. And he gave some examples of that happening in past administrations. How important is it, you know, and i guess, if it wasnt joe biden who was the president elect, perhaps this would be a bigger concern. But he is someone who obviously has incredible a very deep and long experience in washington. But it seems even if Trumps Administration cooperates with the transition, and that obviously is critically, perhaps, the most critical piece of this, theres also usually a president to president , heres what ive learned. This is a very lonely job. Its a very small club of people who have done this before. Heres what i think you might be able to learn from me, a little bit of a passing of the torch, offering some wisdom to the person who is coming in. I mean, its clear, President Trump is not at this point doesnt seem willing at all to participate in what has otherwise been a pretty hollowed tradition. Absolutely. There are other individuals that i spoke with that said that the fact that president elect biden has so much not only experience in washington, but in the white house specifically, its going to make this delay in transition less difficult than it would be in any other situation. I think they mentioned that president barack obama, his first time in the oval office, i believe, was after he won. Obviously, hed been to the white house as a senator but he was coming in as a newcomer. As a result, didnt have the depth of information that you would expect someone to have, when theyre answering the white house. Thats not president elect bidens problem. So, hes not going to have to struggle perhaps as much as some past president elects did. With that being said, it has been four years and a lot has happened in the area of National Security and the economy and other major issues that can shape a country. The fact that the president currently has not taken steps to have those conversations with the president elect, informing him and keeping him up to date on what has changed since he left office, it is going to cause some real challenges in those first 100 days. Its an important point. I mean, since the president elect was part of the White House Team a lot, a lot has changed. Washington posts eugene scott. Thanks, my friend for getting up early with us. Happy thanksgiving to you and yours. Still ahead here, were going to take a look at the artists topping the nomination list for the 66th annual Grammy Awards. Thats next in the cooler, way too early back in just a moment. Moment for over 30 years, lexus has been celebrating driveway moments. Heres to one more, the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2021 nx 300 for 349 a month for 36 months and well make your first months payment. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. And well make your first months payment. With the ninja foodito intelligesmart xl grill. Ing just pick your protein, select your doneness, and let the grill monitor your food. It also turns into an air fryer. Bring outdoor grilling flavors indoors with the grill that grills for you. Diddeodorants onlysome alumask odor . 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Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Welcome back. Time to gather around the watercooler, some of the things that are going to have people talking today. The nominations for the 63rd annual Grammy Awards were announced yesterday with big names topping the nomination list. And inevitably, some pretty big controversy. Beyonce leads the pack with nine total nominations, even though she didnt actually release a proper album this year. Dua lipa and taylor swift are tied with rapper roddey rich for the second most nominations each in six categories. Harry styles became the first one direction member since the band split and bts nominated for their song dinah mighdynamite but the star shut out, the weeknd tweeting the grammys remain corrupt you owe me, my family and the industry transparency. After reporting that the snub came after his decision to headline the super bowl halftime show this year. Interim Recording Academy ceo harvey mason jr. Said while he understands the disappointments voting ended before the super bowl performance was announced so in no way could it have affected the nomination process. Meanwhile, its a wonderful life is getting a 2020 allstar treatment when an allstar cast is coming together for a table reading of the 1964 film. Saturday night live Pete Davidson will play Jimmy Stewarts george bailey. Its for a Charity Event that will benefit the ed asner family center. The king of stars will be joined by mia farrow, ellie kemper and carol cane. The film is december 18th. I love its a wonderful life. No man is a failure who has friends. And now to this, just what we needed in 2020. 2001 i space odyssey apparenting coming to life. A monolith discovered in utah. A Helicopter Mission happens to fly over what seems like its a new wave art structure. Its unclear who or what put this tenfoot monolith there. The Utah Department of safety said it is illegal to install structures of art on federally managed lands no matter what planet youre from. Thanks guys, just what 2020 need, aliens, terrific. Ahead, still ahead here, the president continues his pursuit to a courtimposed outcome of the election even though the experts call it beyond embarrassment. Way too early coming right back. Works with your skin. For lasting care. So your skin. Can keep telling stories. Beautifully. New dove body wash proven lasting care for the skin you live in. New dove body wash proven last care since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things. Nothing more important than family. Introducing the most versatile and advanced chevy suburban and tahoe ever. Brushing only reaches 25 of your mouth. Listerine® cleans virtually 100 . Helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. Never settle for 25 . Always go for 100. Bring out the bold™ welcome back. To the relief of the at least 80 million americans who voted for joe biden, the president s legal challenges to the election appear to be coming to an end. With arguments some legal experts called, quote, beyond embarrassing, the president seems to be hanging the last of his hopes on two cases challenging pennsylvanias mailin ballot process. One is a request that the Appellate Court order the district judge to consider its lawsuit against democratic Election Officials for opening and counting allegedly defective mailin ballots cast for biden. The second case was filed sunday by u. S. Representative mike kelly and others and already facing a motion to dismiss. Kelly and associates claim the state legislature had no authority to create the noexcuse ballot law in the first case. Heres the problem. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on monday that mailin ballots should be counted even with information missing from the ballots mailed in. State officials found no problems with the ballots themselves or minor defects. The Trump Campaign is also hoping to get the defect issue in front of the u. S. Supreme court to try and achieve a different outcome. And though the transition is officially full steam ahead, the president has tweeted that he will not concede. He took to twitter last night to defend his continued pursuit of a courtimposed outcome to the election writing what does gsa allowed to preliminarily work with the dems have to do to pursue our various cases in what will go down as the most corrupt election in history. Twitter flagged that tweet. President trump also retweeted a call by Actor Randy Quaid for an inperson revote in all states asking, republicans are you listening . Remember, they have not so far proven that they have any evidence of any voter fraud. Joining us now, politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein. Sam, good morning. Happy thanksgiving to you. Good morning, happy thanksgiving. So, you wrote about whos paying for the president s many legal battles that are looking increasingly fruitless. We know hes also been, you know, raising money repeatedly. I mean, i havent checked lately. But ive been getting between three and four emails overnight from the president s team. Yeah. What did you learn as you were reporting this out . You know, so, we started wondering a few things, where are the big money men in republican politics and those alive with trump anywhere, the super pacs who have supported trump. In those cases what we found, theyre gone. The big donors dont find anything truthful in this endeavor. In fact, a lot of them think its embarrassing. And the super pacs have basically gone dark. Theres no advertising that we know of. Theres no social Media Presence that we know of. Facebook ads are prohibited right now. Beyond that, we just could not find any footprint and more established figures in the trump world dont find utility in supporting this. What was interested as we started reporting out a little bit how theyre funding all of this stuff, a source told me that the grassroots foundation, people chipping in small amounts of money basically online has been through the roof. In the first days after the election they were bringing in 10 million a day in Online Fundraising which as you know, are completely bananas. You would think after an election people are tapped out and they see the writing on the wall, but, no, the trump base is rallied around this small fund legal cause. At first, a lot of that money was going to towards retiring trump debt. It was in the fine print in the pages. But they started an individual pac for its purpose which suggested they raise enough money for the debt. So the moneys there and its coming from people who really need it and supporting the president. So, if youre a republican who is thinking about running for president in 2024, there are a lot of them, this is yet another indication that the money is still going to go to President Trump. And youre pretty much stalled, no . Unless youre randy quaid, i guess. Randy quaid now has an insight into doing this. Youre pretty much flawed. You have to wait what donald trump says about his future ambitions. Everyone that weve talked about in trumps orbit have basically said they expect him to keep in 2024 or just say hell do it. Keep in mind in 2016 he announced his reelection campaign. Theres just precedent for him saying, yeah, ill do it. If he does, what do you do if youre tom cotton, nikki haley . Do you risk all that comes with it . It is a very tenuous situation for anyone else who has white house am bigs. One thing about trump, hes vindictive and he will go after you if you challenge him. Thats a good word for it. For a lot of these folks who have spent the last four years being incredibly differential to President Trump its hard to see how they make a change at this point successfully. Sam stein, thank you very much. Wish you a happy thanksgiving to you and your family. Earlier in the show we asked why are you awake . Paul tweeted this photo. Im up way too early because thanksgiving pies dont bake themselves. No, indeed they do not. From karen, starting to get food ready for a small thanksgiving dinner. Ann marie says being a person who moved over 30 times, i got up to make amoving tip list for joe biden. And this note from john who says hes way too early heading to a National Wildlife refuge to photograph migrating geese. Cool. Coming up next, well look at the axios one big thing. On morning joe, joe bidens incoming cabinet picks as the president ial transition is officially under way. But not before at least one more order of business with President Trump still in power as he reportedly plans to pardon National Security adviser Michael Flynn. And congresswoman Katherine Clark will join the conversation. Morning joe just moments away. Dry, distressed skin that struggles . New aveeno® restorative skin therapy. With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. Our bargain detergent couldnt keep up. With us. To improve skins resilience. Turns out its mostly water. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. Daughter slurping dont pay for water. Pay for clean. Its got to be tide. Less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. 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Vicks vapopatch. Easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. Trusted soothing vapors, from vicks plus have high Blood Pressure. They may not be able to take just anything for pain. Thats why doctors recommend tylenol®. It wont raise Blood Pressure the way that advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. For trusted relief, trust tylenol®. Welcome back. Joining me know with a look at axios a. M. Is alexi mccannen. Whats your one big thing today . Todays one big thing is based on a story from yesterday where alexandria ocasiocortez is trying to block joe biden from appointing bruce reid to head up the office of management and budget. Theyre criticizing his past support of cuts to Social Security and medicare and calling him a deficit hawk. Theyre amplifying this position from an outside group making their concerns heard that while they might be happy with some of the folks who have been announced so far this week for bidens cabinet, theyre blocking people that dont pass their smell test. The justice democrats were behind some of the primary elections here including playing a key role in ocasiocortezs primary. We heard some rumblings about rahm emanuel as well. Clearly joe biden needs to get these nominees through a likely republican snatenate. He has a history of working with republicans. Its less that they have the power to say we want this person more that theyre just trying to veto people off the list. Theyre kind of limited. Yeah. Thats exactly right. Theyre aware of the power they have and dont have. But theyre feel strength in numbers after a handful of facts like cory bush, jamal bowman, n incoming members of congress, but their hands are tied. They know who joe biden is. They know the well hes pulling from looks different than the names theyre putting forward. They want to put these names out into the ether. They hope and know there are lower sub agencies and lower positions these folks could end up in, and they want to make sure biden and harris know theyre serious not just about personnel but the policies theyre pushing. Of course. So tricky because they lost so many seats in the house, their majority will be narrow. The lesson other people learned is they need to shy away from some of these things that republicans are saying fatherly or not. They tagged some democrats in swing districts with what theyre saying in places where its safe for them to say in new york all the things they want to say, less so in illinois. Lets talk about President Trumps plans to pardon Michael Flynn. The last thing we knew about this, his attorney asked the president not to ask the president to do this. We dont know if thats still what they want here. How does what do you know about the behind the scenes nature of this decision and what it would mean for the president s legacy . Sydney powell said in september that she specifically asked trump not to pardon him. Now maybe those conversations have shifted. President s are allowed to issue pardons on their way out. President trump were told is planning to pardon Michael Flynn in addition to a series of other people he wants to pardon on his way out, cementing his legacy by settling personal scores, fighting against this idea of the socalled deep state which represented the right wing and its going to cement his legacy as someone who is leaving his mark on the party and the white house by using these executive powers to his own benefit. The other interesting thing is if he does this, it removes the entire Michael Flynn situation out of the hands of the court and out of the hands of what will soon be a department of justice under president biden, not a President Trump. For sure. Thank you. I think your dog is behind you. This is the second morning in a row weve had a canine partner in crime. Thank you very much. Happy thanksgiving to you. As we wrap up this morning, i want to take a moment to say thank you to all of our health care workers, nurses, doctors, everyone who is working so incredibly hard and who has been facing just a really difficult time in their personal lives as we deal with this pandemic. We wouldnt be here without you. Thank you for everything that you do. We are here in our house, i know the country is with you and grateful for you on this thanksgiving. Thank you guys for getting up way too early. Morning joe starts right now. The stock market, Dow Jones Industrial average just hit 170,000 cases in